In some ways, A:TI #19 feels like an obsolete title this month. It is a SI tie in, although SI is over and we know how it ended, and we even know the aftermath. Iron Man and the Initiative program take the fall for the invasion, and Osborn takes over everything. For much of the story, Slott & Gage, as well as Tolibao the artist (perhaps the 3rd artist of the SI arc) show us a few pages of the bunch of heroes pummeling various Skrulls to undo their doomsday plan to zap the planet (or at least a large chunk of it) into the Negative Zone out of spite. Basically, we get to see Skrull Dugan and Skrullowjacket bite it here.
But the crux of the issue is on Crusader, Kirkman's final creation in MARVEL TEAM UP who has grown quite a bit during this arc. As a former Skrull spy turned superhero (and Earth defender), naturally SECRET INVASION proved to be a good reason to flesh him out and explore his character, rather than just leaving him as "Freedom Ring's former mentor". Slott & Gage got a lot of mileage out of him and I actually grew to like him. He wasn't pefect; as paranoid about being discovered and mistrusted as he was noble and willing to defend his new home and allies. In the end, he saves the planet and the Initiative from Skrullojacket, and what is his reward? Getting his brains blown out by an overzealous 3-D Man, who discovered he didn't need his goggles to see through Skrull disguises (basically a version of SPACEBALLS' "Tha ring is BUBKISS! I found it in a Cracker Jack Box! Tha Schwartz is in You, Lonestar, it's in YOU!" only with 3-D Man). Now, one could argue that it was partly Crusader's fault for not telling anyone who he really was, but I don't blame him. In all honesty, Delroy was being overzealous. Skrull or not, the guy JUST TOOK OUT HIS DAMNED COMMANDER and saved the world. Didn't that at least warrent a pause to ask, "Hey, what the--" and so on? But maybe in a way it was a simple message about what Marvel Earth has become. It has become polarized, corrupt, paranoid, and with morals so gray that simple prejudices rule the day and acts of nobility are not as heralded as they once were (and they rarely were to begin with). At any rate, Crusader vanished with the ring, and is likely not dead. It would be a shame if he returned as a villain, but he would probably be a sympathetic one.
The new 3-D Man was a positive thing, and I liked seeing Delroy step up until that last sequence. Now all I can say is, I guess war gets everyone lost in bloodlust. Virtually every hero there was fine with slaughtering Skrulls without a second's hesitation. Desperate times and all that, but it matches the sort of sliding scale of morality the Initiative, at least as set up by Gyrich, Gauntlet, and Skrullowjacket. Kill the target first, never take prisoners, and if you get at all affected by killing someone, you're weak and need to hit the showers. Crusader's heroism at the end was all for nothing, and much like the ending of the special last month, that sort of hit me in the gut as overly bleak and depressing. Is space really the only place at Marvel that makes any sense?
That said, as usual, A:TI was chop full of the sort of cameos everyone likes, including Jocasta, who soon will be rejoining the Mighty Avengers. The art was solid for the most part, although I still miss Caselli on this title.
The next issue is the last for Slott as co-writer, where we get the big reveal for Mutant Zero, and I can't wait for that. I also can't wait to see where Gage takes things solo next year. Still a solid title, but it has become so bleak and sucked a lot of the fun and nobility out of a few characters that I might be starting to lose interest if there wasn't a big reveal ahead and a shift in the writing team coming up. A:TI is still a solid title with a lot of characters, but it could lighten up a little. Just enough where saving the world didn't earn you a slug in the back. Enough that it didn't almost earn the YOST & KYLE ON NEW X-MEN SEAL OF MISERY award. It gets hard to root for bastards every month, and hopefully A:TI won't become full of them.
I forgot to mention the little GLA sequence in AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #19 was cute.
